how many plants
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Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
I run a SoG similar to what you're proposing.
I use rockwool floc (aka 'granulated rockwool,' sold in 12.5kg bales) as a pot stuffer. The pots sit in a flood tray, as you are proposing. My SoG plants do fine in 8" dia x 8" tall pots. I reckon you'd be able to fit 12 pots in a 3'x3' tray. Pack 'em in! An 8" circle is more than sufficient if you prune off all the branching on the lower 1/3 of the plant. You're only growing a single stalk, so there will be no crowding; airflow around properly pruned SoG style plants is no problem.
You might even be able to use 6" dia x 6" tall pots to allow you to fit in a few more, but I don't think I'd go smaller. An 8" pot full of floc will hold right about 2 litres of water, enough to get the plant through a pump failure for a day or two. The bigger pot is a bit of a water supply insurance policy; my flowering plants never fill the rockwool completely with roots. My mother plants, which are sometimes allowed to grow as long as 14-16 weeks, DO fill an 8" pot of rockwool and start to become rootbound. I usually replace mums after 3-4 passes of cuttings.
Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
You don't top prune SoG plants. The idea is to grow a single cola as usually grows as the terminal top cola on a naturally growing plant with none of the lower branches. Even under the most powerful indoor lighting, lower branches produce small, wispy buds compared to the solidly dense top cola and those buds which are on the mainstem, close to the top of the plant. In SoG, the branches on the lower 1/3 of the plant are pruned off.
As she is done around here:
Plants pictured are at about 3-4 weeks of an 8 week flowering cycle.
Pruning off the growing tip will force the plant to divide growth and make the plant branch out. This is the exact opposite of what is needed in SoG. SoG relies on growing a large number of relatively small individual plants, but the average bud weight and density goes way up due to the way the plant grows top colas and upper buds.
cuz i was thinkin a 3x3 tray would be able to fit 27 4inch cubes minus 2 cubes for flood and drain fittings so that gives me 25 spaces. i didnt know i had to use pots. i reas a thread sumwhere that the guy prunes the bottom third of his plants 6 days into flowering and then again at 14 days into flowering. i was thinking that i could just place a sheet of rockwool into the tray and then have the grow rocks on top of the rockwool to prevent light from penetrating into my rockwool. the clones will be around 5-6inches tall when i put them in the trays for flowering. i just didn't know i had to put my plants in pots. I was planning on having three trays so while i had the 25 plant number in my head i was thinking i could harvest 25 plants every 3 weeks. i will be growing the chronic strain so if anybody has any ideas on yields under near perfect growing conditions can you guys let me know. thanks.
Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
If you don't separate the cubes somehow, such as with plastic pots, the root systems will intermingle and you won't be able to move the plants around.
I know I said 'pack 'em in' but 25 SoG plants in a 3'x3' space is just too many, even if you prune all the lower branching. Gotta have SOME space for the big fan leaves attached to the upper part of the stem and air circulation. If you pack 25 in a 3'x3' space, I'd put a bet that powdery mildew will kill half of them, solving the problem...
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That's typical SoG procedure and pretty close to how I do it. You might have read my thread.
Rockwool doesn't let much light through. It's fairly dense and made from melted basalt rock spun out like cotton candy. Grow rocks would not be a good light shield, even if one were needed.
If your roots knit together, as they would without pots, you won't be able to move plants- or easily remove a plant which is not thriving. Working with the plants is SO much easier when they are potted. You'll find that doing the pruning work and spraying for powdery mildew is a real pain when you can't pick the plant up and turn it around. In pots, you can also move underperforming plants into the area nearest the light while moving those doing very well out to the edges of light coverage, evening out growth amongst them.
5-6" is a good size for SoG clones. I cut them a bit taller than that, 6-7".
I can fit 21x 8" pots (23 if I force them) into my 4'x4' trays. You might be able to fit 18 in your 3x3 trays if you use 6" dia pots, but I'd go no smaller. When the plants get to about wk 4, they're really cooking and can come close to draining all the water from an 8" pot of rockwool floc in 24 hours.
al b. ure the fucking man .i appreciate it. i'll be looking pm'in you soon did you build your setup or what.i want to have three 3x3 trays and i have a discount hydro catalog i was wonderin if you had some time could you go to the site or another site of your choice and look at what they have then pm me with the specific things i have to buy for 1 ebb and flow system. i've done alot of research and all of the sites i've come upon haven't told me the sizes of fitting etc... also under near perfect conditions how much do you think i could yield with 18 chronic plants SOG style.
P.S. you should be a moderator or somethin. I'll vote for you how ever many times is needed. like a G. bush vs. A.Gore kund thing...lol
P.S. you should be a moderator or somethin. I'll vote for you how ever many times is needed. like a G. bush vs. A.Gore kund thing...lol
FilthyFletch
Mr I Can Do That For Half
I wont do more then 9-12 plants in a 3x3 tray will be tight and you dont wanna loose yeild from cramping them up to tight
Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
With you, FF. I think 9-12, depending on the strain, is just about right for that space. If 12, I'd run a 600HPS. A 400 would do 9.
Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
Thanks for the compliment.
However, I'd prefer that you keep your queries in an open thread. This one will do. If I have 10 ppl PMing me, I find I answer the same question several times.
Well, I didn't run the thermovacuformer which made my flood trays from a flat sheet of plastic- but I know the guy who did!
If you're asking if I bought a kit from a hydro shop, no.
Mind you, it would have been wicked cool to have been able to phone some jokers up and say "yeah, I want a grow op installed, can you have someone out on Monday?"
Probably not. I'm just out of hospital and also trying to keep my own op running. I'm afraid I'll have to leave the research up to you- not that there's too much to do.
Flood trays almost all use 1/2" barbed fittings for common garden hose for the pump line and either 3/4" or 7/8" hose on the overflow drain line. When you buy your trays, ask for fittings to go with them. There's not too many different sizes of tray fittings.
A new grower might get 7-9oz from 18 under a 600W HPS. You probably should shoot for 9-12 plants, though. Probs induced by crowding 18 in your space available (i.e powdery mildew, grey mould in buds) would likely cut the yield to what you'd get from 9-12 healthy plants and give you poorer quality while you're at it.
Thanks for the compliment, again.
However, I would politely decline an invitation to be a mod. I was a mod on Overgrow.com before DEA shut them down, with Canada's unusually fascist help... and I think I've probably done enough of that sort of thing.